World News Quick Take

Agencies

FRANCE

Ex-call girl designs lingerie

A one-time call-girl got the Paris fashion pack hot under the collar with a delectably naughty lingerie line unveiled on the sidelines of the haute couture shows. Zahia Dehar made global headlines in 2010 when it emerged the French-Algerian was offered up for sex with the soccer player Franck Ribery and co-players as a birthday “gift,” aged just 16, prompting a vice probe into the French squad. Now aged 20, the young woman has reinvented herself as a lingerie couturiere, winning high-profile support from Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, who shot the official pictures for her first collection unveiled in Paris in January.

HONG KONG

Sharks closes beaches

Authorities yesterday urged the public to remain alert after a shark sighting prompted a one-day closure of popular beaches across the territory. Officials closed 12 beaches on Sunday, during an extended holiday weekend, after a swimmer reported seeing a shark off the south of the territory. Checks by government officials had found “no big fish” inside the shark nets at the beaches and the nets intact. The beaches were reopened on Monday. “We urge the public to remain vigilant, however, and swim in the enclosed zones of the shark prevention nets,” a department spokesman said. Shark sightings are rare in the territory and some experts said the closures may have been an overreaction. Reports suggested the sighting may have been of a whale shark, a species that poses no significant threat to humans. The last fatal shark attack in the territory was in 1995, according to the Shark Attack File Web site, which monitors such incidents worldwide.

SOUTH AFRICA

Majority fear ‘missing out’

Two-thirds of teens and adults in the country suffer from a “fear of missing out” on more interesting activities than what they’re doing, a study by a pharmaceutical firm showed on Monday. More than 62 percent of about 3,000 respondents aged between 15 and 50 years said in a nationwide survey that they live in “constant fear” of missing out on something more exciting that what they are doing. The symptoms of the epidemic include the inability to put away one’s mobile phone, excessive texting even while driving, tweeting on the toilet and showing up at events uninvited. “The survey confirmed that over 62 percent of South Africans admitted that they live in constant fear of missing out [FOMO],” Pharma Dynamics spokeswoman Mariska Fouche said, adding FOMO elevates stress levels. “People who suffer from FOMO constantly push themselves to the limit and even when we are sick, we try not to miss out on social events, we still go to work and we can’t say no and this puts a lot of additional strain on our immune system that in turn heightens our risk of more serious illness,” she said. The firm stumbled on the finding while studying what drove a rising demand for immune-boosting supplements.

CHINA

Bird flu outbreak sparks cull

Authorities in Xinjiang have culled more than 150,000 chickens following an outbreak of bird flu, officials said. The outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu initially killed 1,600 chickens and sickened about 5,500, the agriculture ministry said late on Monday. In an effort to contain the disease, agricultural authorities quarantined the area and culled 156,439 chickens, according to the ministry.